try as many as you can!! pick something simple, dog kennel/fence whatever but not too hard ;-)  make the same thing in all of the proggys. then dump the half of them you didnt like. Do it again with something a bit harder something with curves in(humpbacked bridge or curved arch doorway) check its uv mapping at this point, even the best made model looks bad if its maps are a mess. As above dump the ones you dont like! , pick one of the 2 ;-)

my opinions of the proggys above, anim8tor is dead easy and real basic a week or so in here will do only good, wings not used it for a long time was good then an better now from what I read would seem to have good uvmapping, hexagon is amazing really fast easy to learn ideal for poser but uvmapping is awefull an sculpting is pretty dire(an I'm NOT good at that) blender is an all round package, can do pretty much anything in it!! lots lots more then the above proggys and its a bit of a handfull

have fun an welcome to the madhouse of modeling